Open Legacies : Exploring Thanatosensitivity in the Context of Creators’ Digital Commons Contributions

Abstract: Technology has become closely interwoven with our lives, positioning us as authors of large and diverse databases. These extensive collections of digital assets will be left behind as digital legacies after users eventually die. Addressing the inevitability of death in digital systems, including considerations for pre-configuring, or accessing these digital legacies, calls for thanatosensitivity in design. As a relatively new field, thanatosensitive HCI research on digital legacy has primarily focused on data storage and security as well as social networking systems. However, people might create online content that can be of relevance postmortem beyond the next of kin and private network, such as contributions to digital commons communities. In my research, I explore challenges and opportunities for thanatosensitive design in the context of digital commons communities by examining two design cases as samples of that area: GitHub and the Free Music Archive. Through a process inspired by programmatic design research, I followed a mixed method approach including literature reviews, interviews, workshop sessions, and iterative design synthesis. The outcome is a guidebook consisting of annotated portfolios with design exemplars for each design case, accessible to different stakeholders for further collaboration. Drawing on the annotations and intersections between both cases, I frame the knowledge contributions of this study as insights from the design process, aiming to provide directions for future research on thanatosensitivity in systems for digital commons contributions.